Let’s talk about how this system performs off-road and what the benefits you’re gonna see with a 2.5-inch coil. With Fox 2.5 they are referring to the 2.5-inch diameter of the actual shock body; it includes the shock in the Coilover and the rear shocks. That’s going to allow more fluid in these so you’re going to get less fade there’s more fluid to move but you also get a larger piston there and you’re getting valving.
This is by no means a universal kit or a universal shock please make sure it is going to work for the vehicle you own.
Another benefit of these shocks is external reservoirs or piggyback resistance. These external reservoirs in the rear allow fluid to go somewhere as your shock is moving. If you don’t have a reservoir then fluid has to stay within the shock body and the piston can only go so far in the terms of this system; with those external reservoirs fluid now has somewhere else to go so that piston can push a lot further up and down within the shock body. It can move all the oil into those external reservoirs.
The type of terrain where I think this technology really plays well is running fast through woods, doing some desert running, cruising down forest roads.
Areas, where the shocks are going to be working at a high rate of speed and tires, are bouncing.
How do they handle the weight?
In my examination, they handled the weight of my truck well because even though I had got hundreds of extra pounds of equipment it took a long time before I felt any sort of ride quality difference. Even when they do start to finally get hot to the point of maybe losing a bit of ride quality the change is not that dramatic this is an excellent kit for handling this type of weight and it’s also an excellent kit if you’re the type of person that does want to push your truck at higher speeds and kind of play around in the dirt a little bit more.
I think it is worth noting that if you have a ranger that has less weight on it you’re probably still going to see better results because with less weight there’s less strain on those shocks and they don’t have to work as hard to keep the truck in control.
I generally think that’s what a lot of people are looking for when they look at these higher-end suspension systems is a nice floaty ride that’s going to be fast over woods but the truth is it’s definitely not that. You definitely can’t just throw this kit on and run your truck down at 100 miles an hour. It just doesn’t work that way but it is certainly going to be far better equipped than the stock suspensions.
You do see a huge difference between just a regular leveled strut and Fox 2.5 when you push the truck faster and faster. These respond well and because they’re soft they eat up a lot of the smaller bumps and they don’t seem to lose control of the vehicle. The vehicle stays very well planted and even when I was pushing it hard enough to bounce over woods at 20 miles an hour or even pushing past that and trying to hit the bump stops the truck definitely maintained control and didn’t feel like it was going to run away from me at any point.
Oftentimes people ask me how’s this going to compare to an icon or a king? Is it softer or stiffer? Am I going to like the ride?
A lot of that comes down to personal preference but I found that in most cases fox is on the softer side of the spectrum so it’s no surprise here that these are pretty squishy and comfortable.
Usually, that runs the risk of being a little less controlled because if the shock is too soft you get too bouncy and there’s body roll and you can’t necessarily control or modulate your braking as well if you’re bouncing over rocks or the trucks kind of rolling around so that can be a negative and you certainly do experience that at points but with this system but it manages it well now.
An icon or a king system usually leans on the stiffer side of things and they tend to be a bit more planted and will handle pushing your truck to the limits a little bit better but that comes at the sacrifice of not quite as soft a ride.
the thing to keep in mind with this information though is that a lot of times these higher-level systems do have compression adjustments which is the case here with the foxes where you can see those little anodized dials on the resis where you can twist for high and low compression and kind of figure out what’s going to be the
It may be pretty obvious to this point that I have a lot of nice things to say about the Fox 2.5 and even with the Fox 2.0s there is plenty of good to say about these kits and it’s pretty difficult to find cons especially when you get to this point of suspension equipment.
The first con that I would say is definitely that the front coil overs alone without the rears are already going to put you a little bit over two grand in most cases and that’s not very budget-friendly. If you’re looking for a cheap way to get your truck lifted in terms of is that a good value or not I do generally feel that you get what you pay for. If you pay a lot for a fox 2.5 kit you’re going to get a lot of good suspension performance and something that can take abuse and is going to hold up well over time but it’s going to cost you.
If you’re somebody who is looking to get a little bit more entry-level and doesn’t necessarily need the performance of this kit you’ll probably find a much better deal, a much better value even in a Fox 2.0 kit, or something a little bit simpler.
In terms of on-road performance and this is usually just kind of a last little piece that I tuck into all these suspension reviews because everybody’s more concerned about off-road performance and what it’s going to do for their truck on the trail but obviously, if this is your daily driver that you’re putting it on you want to know that you’re going to have a good on-road experience going to work or running down the highway or carrying the family around so with
The fox has a pretty soft system. It’s no surprise that on the street it rides like a cloud. I would even go as far as to say that this is probably one of the most comfortable kits I’ve ever run.
It really floats over things and I do like that in terms of road trip ability here you know highway miles tend to just float by day-to-day commuting is comfortable in it and if you’re concerned about how your significant other or your kids are going to feel they’ll probably like the way this rides because it’s not very abrasive.
I think almost anybody that runs the suspension is going to be happy with the results that they get as well as the capability now the big deciding factor is going to be the way you use your vehicle.
If you’re a guy that’s looking for something more entry-level or you’re just simply looking to lift your truck a little bit to fit a larger tire and going to do more technical trail driving that isn’t high speed you may not see it as many benefits here as this kit might not be the right fit for you because you’ll get just the same performance that you wanted out of something smaller like a Fox 2.0. so definitely keep that in mind.
That being said if you are the type of person that pushes your vehicle hard or you’re doing a lot of long stints off-road you’ve got a lot of weight in there and you’re really concerned about shock fade or you want something that’ll take those heavier hits when you’re pushing out in the desert this is probably going to be more in your wheelhouse and I think you’re going to find a lot more utility out of this system.